home composting thingamajig

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

Has anyone used \link{http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/shop/foundcategory.lasso?category_id=16&-session=shopper:522BD7AE07ca22A68FqrFE54F2B6\one of these}? I have a wormery and have been a bit disappointed in how slow it has been and how full it has got of those grim little white worms. Is this thing really as good as they claim? Can't say I relish the idea of halting production in the wormery. This would involve some rather grim sluicing out of worm corpses [sick emoticon] - haven't even got a big garden where I could just sluice it out onto a big flower bed and forget about it. But if this thing is as good as they claim I migh be tempted.

Haven't got one yet but am thinking of taking the plunge - it sounds almost too good to be true. What am not sure about though is th instructions on what to do with your pickled kitchen scraps - its seems than you have to dig them into soil or have a big compost heap on which to put them.

I'll report back if I go ahead.

I've got a worm bin (can-o-worms), try not too give up on it just yet!! Have seen Bokashi too - not too sure how good it is. Has taken a couple of years to get our wormery up and running, and have to use it in conjunction with a regular compost bin to manage all the waste produced by a family of 5. Few things we've discovered to keep your worms happy:
keep the tap open otherwise it can fill quickly and you end up with worm soup.
don't add too much waste. If it starts to rot before the worms get to it, it can throw the balance out completely.
don't worry too much about the white worms. We've loads. Don't seem to cause much trouble so I just leave them.
add cardboard, and more cardboard, worms really don't like it too wet. Add lots of lime too.

My 1st attempt was a disaster and I ended up with a rather grim worm soup which I threw on the garden. Didn't seem to cause any damage but didn't half stink!!!!

Hope this is useful. Keep us posted if you decide to try the Bokashi.

Sorry, slightly misread your message regarding disposal of worm corpses! Disposal could be difficult with no garden - down the drain then??

Have taken plunge and ordered Bokashi. Am expecting it in 7 days. The woman on phone at Wiggly WIgglers was v helpful and what swung it was when she said you could put left over rice & stir fry sauce (DH's estimates of rice cooking often over generous). Am v excited at thought of being such a green person.

Watch this space.

Have got it & have been putting stuff in it for 2 days. However as it must take about 2 weeks to fill up bucket and then another 2 weeks to wait for it to "do" will probably not have much to report for a while.

The only thing am a bit worried about is the description of what you have to do if it goes wrong (not often apparently) which involves burying a prutifying mass of rotten food etc in your garden. Nice.

Will keep you posted

How's it going Martini?
i have just bought a wormery before reading this thread, so will now be watching out to see whether I should have gone for the other one...
btw what do you think the person in the photo is wearing? Compost in your nightie anyone?

We have almost filled up the first bucket which has taken almost 3 weeks & seems to consist of quite a lot of orange peels, banana skins & bread crusts. We don't actually produce that much kitchen waste as sadly I am a bit of a frozen peas and rice lazy person. Also have not put much meat in it as I'm not that keen on the idea (plus we tend to eat up all meat that we have).

However am pleased to report it all smells fine and no unpleasant mould or slimy stuff has appeared. Emptying out the "juice" has become a great event for DS even though it there is only about 10ml per day & it just looks like cold tea.

It really couldn't be easier - normally just stick it in as go along & at end of day squash it down a bit and sprinkle with bran stuff.

However the next bit is the 2 weeks pickling followed by emptying it out into compost heap which is the true test of success.

Will report back soon.

Agree lady's clothes are a bit odd but with a Bokashi you could compost in full evening dress, nightdress or velour tracksuit. Maybe she is Japanese (home of Bokashi) & is wearing kimono.

thanks for the update - I'm really looking forward to finding out how you get on after the 'pickling' stage. I am sorely tempted to get one but am being cheeky and waiting to find out how you get on first!

DItto sis !!

What can you put on the wormery -
and what are the different stages involved .... naively I thought you just put the food in on a daily basis - and the worms did the rest

where do you put your left overs if it's spending two weeks pickling? And you still ahve to have compost heap too?

You get 2 buckets so once you've filled one you start the next. They aren't very big, about the size of a small pedal bin & you could put them out in a garden shed or somewhere I think as long as its not too cold. Except you have to have them a it handy so you can pour off the "juice".

As for the compost heap - well it says you can just dig your pickled stuff into the ground but that only works of you've got loads of empty flower beds. However you can also put it on the heap where apparently it breaks down really fast.

The main attraction for me is the fact that I don't have to trek up and down garden with old bits of veg. Can save it all for one go.

In my wormery manual it says you shouldn't put much orange or citrus peel because it is too acidic for the worms and no meat either-
what made me lol it said they did like cakes,biscuits and pancakes! well if they are doing a good job ds might get to give them a treat!

Prepare yourselves - I am going to undo the pickled bucket tonight and put on compost heap - will report back on condition later!

Done it. The contents of the bucket were not unpleasant - as per the instructions they looked pretty much the same as when they went in but a bit flatter and soggier. It didn't smell too bad either - a bit acidic. It certainly wasn't the smelly heap you'd expect if you just stuck your kitchen scraps in a bucket for 5 weeks with no special bran.

I've stuck half on the compost heap and the rest I dug into flower bed I'm not using atm. The dug in stuff contained quite a lot of orange peel which was pretty easy to chop up into bits with spade (not like tough old dried up orange peel).

So its all looking good. Maybe I should leave a couple of weeks and then have a dig around in the bed to see what's happened to it.

Am not sure if it will turn into top quality compost but its reduced my rubbish bag numbers a bit and made me feel quite good.

Thank you Martini - I am still undecided as I was thinking that the miracle thingamajig would made compost in that short time (I know, it was silly of me). Still curious to know how long it takes for the stuff you put in the soil and the compost heap to break down so I hope you keep us updated .

Latest composting update - the stuff I dug into the ground from my Bokashi seems to have completely disappeared - well certainly no longer looks like squashed banana/ orange peel. The stuff I put on my compost heap (in big green compost bin) has also disappeared into black sludge that is my decomposing grass cuttings.

So generally I am pretty impressed by Bokashi and it does seem a lot less bother than a wormery if you've got the space for the buckets.

We are just pickling bucket 2 so will report further and of course next year will tell you of lush growth in the spare flower bed where I buried my Bokashi!